Informl = wiki + forms + db
Informl allows you to
- create web pages and simple database-backed web applications
- using only your browser
- without any programming
Overview
Informl is intended to help you structure the information that you depend on to run your business or organization: customer records, inventory, orders and shipments, vacation records, contracts, patents, etc.
Note that the current implementation is at an early adopter, pre-beta stage.
Goals
- easy to use
- information is protected, secure, and available to those who need it, when they need it
- adaptable, customizable -- doesn't assume a specific workflow, or impose unnatural constraints
- data can be structured, permitting ease-of-reuse, generation of reports, etc.
- make it feasible for small businesses, non-profits, etc. to afford custom tools
Features
- General wiki features
- uses markdown for text markup
- additions to markdown for wikilinks, tables, page inclusion
- RSS feeds
- live preview
- Form elements
- radio buttons
- dropdown selectors (combo boxes)
- check boxes
- buttons
- text fields and text areas
- Database
- data submitted through forms goes into a database
- each page's schema is built and migrated on the fly to match the form content
- pages can include results of database queries
- uses ActiveRecord for integration with other Rails applications
- Automatically generated results and summary pages
- General-purpose extension mechanism
- examples include dates, tables, Google Maps
For more information, see: informl cheatsheet, wiki organization, referencing, extensions.
Recent additions
- backup/restore using YAML, allowing easy migration to different databases
- RESTful controllers and routes
- sortable summary table view
- authentication
- page deletion, book creation
- search
- more complex database queries (including some join cases)
- per-page RSS feeds, and feeds for submissions
Some missing features
- file upload, attachments
- finer-grained roles (more than author / guest)
- administration: dump/load books, rename pages, manage complex database migrations
- mandatory form fields
- validations
- versioning of submissions and schemas
- date picker, password fields
Potential Features
For more details on what we're working on, see storytracker.